Tag: North London Forever

Plane ride to paradise

Amy O3 Comments

The next morning it was back to Heathrow and a connection through Dublin, then the long flight to Chicago. I was surprised to see so many Arsenal shirts on my flight to Dublin. In fact, all three of us in left row 28 had been to The Emirates the night before.

Interestingly, Aer Lingus does not land in Chicago in the International terminal so you go through customs in Dublin. After getting off the flight, you are routed through literal TSA, where your carry-on bags go through Security again and then you go through passport control.

In the Security line, we were told by a harried TSA agent to remove our shoes unless we were age 75 or older or under 12. A passenger in the line a few people in front of me asked if he had to remove his shoes if he was Global Entry. The Security agent waited until he was out of earshot and muttered, “Yes, you have to remove your shoes even if you are a prick with Global Entry.”

I took my shoes off cooperatively, hoping no one would think I was over 75. Then I slinked over to Global Entry, which I am also lucky enough to have. It does save a ton of time when you return from a trip. Even if you have to remove shoes along the way.

It never occurred to me that I’d have to get through customs in Dublin and the timing of my connection was kind of tight. I had time to have a cup of tea and we boarded the flight to Chicago shortly thereafter. I had spent time in both Heathrow and the Dublin airport reviewing content after the Arsenal match. Since there was so much activity after the match, it was a while before the normal manager interviews were produced.

One thing that surprised me in the Mikel Arteta interview was his comments about Man City’s match with Bournemouth which was to take place that same night I flew back to Chicago, Tuesday. Up until that point, Arteta had been dogged, when the press asked him what he hoped would happen in any upcoming Man City match or would he be watching Man City’s next match, that he was only focused on what he can control. He insisted each time that he can only focus on the next match his team plays. And they would work as hard as possible to have the “right” to win it.

In contrast, every time Pep Guardiola, Man City’s manager was asked a similar question he spoke openly about how he was rooting for Arsenal’s opponent. When Arsenal were going to play West Ham next, he said jokingly that he had offered to West Ham to serve as an assistant coach. He had said there was “no doubt” that Burnley could take something off of Arsenal. And with regard to Arsenal’s last match of the season against Crystal Palace, he openly supported them. He made a special point after Man City’s match against Crystal Palace to shake the hands of many Crystal Palace players, to put an arm around them in camaraderie.

So it was interesting in speaking with the press after the Burnley match that when Mikel Arteta was asked if he would watch Bournemouth vs. Man City, he said he would watch it with his family and that he was going to be Bournemouth’s biggest fan. No more being focused only on his next match and what he could control. A strange turn of events.

To review the title race as it stood on Tuesday morning, if Arsenal won the last match against Crystal Palace away, there would be nothing Man City could do to stop Arsenal from winning the title. If Man City won both of its upcoming matches, the one against Bournemouth and the one against Aston Villa, and Arsenal tied or lost to Crystal Palace, the title would be Man City’s, decided on the first tiebreaker, goal difference.

There is no way Man City was going to lose to Aston Villa. Aston Villa are managed by Arsenal’s old manager, Unai Emery, and he usually radiates tremendous bitterness against Arsenal. And Aston Villa were solidly in Champions League spots for next year with no concerns they might fall out. And finally, Aston Villa were playing in the final of the Europa League this week, Wednesday. They had a great chance of winning, and winning equals party and, let’s face it, after that who cares about winning the last match against Man City?

So that left two hopes for Arsenal. #1: Win away from home on Sunday against a good team, Crystal Palace. Or #2: hope Man City ties or loses at Bournemouth. It wasn’t a crazy hope. Man City didn’t look good over the weekend, regardless of their ultimate win, and Bournemouth has a great record at home. And Arsenal lost to Bournemouth when they visited recently.

But you know. It’s Man City. I felt pretty resigned to having to sit through a tight, horrible match against Crystal Palace next Sunday. And the many things can happen in that match.

I was going to be on the plane back to Chicago during the Bournemouth v. Man City match and almost certainly would not be able to watch it. I’m pretty sure I would not have even tried. I feel like when I watch, Man City inevitably scores. Especially if they are losing or tied when I start watching. I usually try to not even follow the score line, which probably would have been possible even on the plane.

But the match was going to be over several hours before I got off the plane and I was hoping to be able to know our fate at some point before that.

It did not happen. I was unable to connect at all with wifi on the plane. I watched three movies, two of which I had seen before. I ate pasta lunch and a snack. I listened to calming music for the last 45 minutes. I had my phone fully charged so I would be ready to go the second we touched down in Chicago.

And remember, I was hopeful, but I kind of just knew we were going to have to get through that last match on Sunday. It’s been that kind of year.

The wheels hit earth and we were still skidding to a stop when I had my phone in hand and off airplane mode. A few seconds later I was trying to open the BBC Scores and Fixtures page in Chrome. It loaded interminably and then, bing, bing, bing. So many text and What’sApp messages coming up, one after the other. Congratulating me on the title, woohooing at me, OMGing me. All from different people who don’t know each other, so surely they were not banded together to punk me?

And then the BBC page loaded. It was already Wednesday in England so the BBC page was showing the upcoming Aston Villa match in the Europa League rather than Tuesday’s results. I clicked back to Tuesday and there it was. Man City had only managed a 1-1 tie with Bournemouth. A gap in points they could not overcome with only one match remaining.

Arsenal were Champions. For the first time in 22 years. For the first time since they’ve been my team. And it doesn’t matter what happens on Sunday.

I was overcome with joy. And so much relief. And on a plane with a bunch of strangers and not able to shout out with glee. I was harboring so much of it in my body. Tears rose in my eyes.

The rest of it is a blur. Since returning to Chicago I’ve wasted so much time watching the celebrations all over the world, including the Arsenal players celebrating from their training center where they watched the match together.

One thing stands out more than anything. As Man City was playing and it was looking like they would not win, Arsenal fans started leaving their houses and flats all over the city of London. They walked, rode, and drove over to The Emirates like Monarch butterflies coming back to their home.

Thousands of people around the stadium and on the streets of North London. Hugging, crying, singing, celebrating. Being washed in champagne. In this moment where there was nothing planned by the club and no one expected even to see the players, they needed to be together.

They stayed there for hours. A few players did get over to The Emirates at about 5 a.m. and took selfies with the remaining die hards.

The other thing that stands out in all my viewing is the wonderful video released by Arsenal that I think sums up this season so beautifully. The club was ready to go if the moment struck, but that video might have been consigned to the trash heap. Probably several others have in the past few years. Arsene Wenger to kick it off! You know I love that.

Mikel Arteta was nowhere to be seen in the videos of the players celebrating for several days when finally a few photos were made public of him with the team in a nightclub somewhere in London Tuesday night or Wedensday morning.

It came out more recently that Arteta did not watch the match with his family as he said he would in the interview after the Burnley match. A plan for players and staff to watch the match at the training center had been made at the request of the players on Tuesday. Martin Odegaard had asked Mikel and his staff to be there. But at the last moment, Arteta found himself in the viewing space and realized he wasn’t in the right frame of mind to be present. Instead he drove home, where he found his family watching the match. He went into his yard, lit a fire, and commenced barbecuing. He stayed outside for the entire match. He said it felt like forever. At last his son came out the door. He was crying. “We are champions, Daddy.”

What a beautiful moment for the young man who has worked so hard in his first managerial job. And for his family who no doubt bore much of the stress. And for the players and all of us who joined them on this journey.

There is a different takeaway. Arteta didn’t watch the match. I didn’t watch it. I understand Declan Rice didn’t watch it. We were controlling what we are able to control, which is making Arsenal succeed by not letting Man City see us looking at them.

You’re welcome, Arsenal community.

(En)chant(ed)

Amy OLeave a comment

So I take back what I said before the Tottenham match. Maybe only the Club People have lost their belief. Maybe they never had it, or needed it. Maybe they all just desperately needed cash that day. Or a good night’s sleep. But what I experienced at the match showed fan hope and fervent love for Arsenal. Yes, some momentary despair was in the air at times. And for sure a thing that was in the air was a lot of disdain for our rivals, Tottenham Hotspur.

I’ve been the the North London Derby only once before and, like that experience, this one did not disappoint.

The route to the stadium was unbelievably straightforward. Trains not too crowded, gates running smoothly. We stopped at the Armoury again because we had so much time on our hands after we got to the stadium even though we got a late start. It was almost empty.

All of these things made me double down on my worries about what the atmosphere might be like in the stadium in the so-called-by-me post-belief Arsenal world. The only sign that this was a match a lot of people might care about was the massive police presence outside of the stadium near where the Tottenham fans would come in. We saw what looked like a well-protected group of Tottenham fans being held over one of the bridges into the stadium to guarantee safety as we arrived at our gate on the East side of the stadium.

And then. And then. We got into the stadium. So many people standing in the concourse singing with great passion and energy. It was raucous, so loud. The stadium was full. Even the Club part where all those tickets had been up for sale filled in nicely.

The singing is one of the things that brings me the feeling I understand as collective effervescence that brings me back to the stadium again and again. You just feel like you are being swept up in this crowd of people and becoming one with them. I know it’s over a sport, maybe nothing that will change the world, but when I’m in it I feel goosebumps right into even my brain. Listening to a crowd of 60,000 people singing “North London Forever” gets me. Tears sometimes. But this time, oh my goodness, it was so LOUD I think you could hear it on the moon.

I think both of my visits to the stadium this week reminded me that even though I’ve been a devoted Arsenal supporter for more than 15 years I can never fully understand the history that is in the bodies of these fans. At an FA Cup match there were FA-specific songs, many of them I had never heard before. But huge numbers of fans in the stadium can pick them up and sing them easily just because someone got the inspiration and let the song in their heart OUT of their heart. Each song was just waiting for someone to start it.

And with the Tottenham match, that history came out in a different way. Now, singing is used to inspire the team. “We love you Arsenal, we do,” is an example. It’s also used to reward the team. After a player does something particularly impressive, the fans often reflect that back with a chant. It might be that player’s special song bestowed on them by the fans, like Gabriel Magalhaes song or might be a tune everyone knows that inserts the player’s name. When Ethan Nwaneri, a homegrown 18-year old, does something well, the fans sing, “He’s one of our own, he’s one of our own, Ethan Nwaneri, he’s one of our own,” just inserting his name into a familiar construct everyone knows.

Big Gabi is sung a lot because, lately, he scores a lot. On a corner kick, which Arsenal is recently quite good at, his is the head that usually produces the goal. But it’s more than that. He just delivers a complete performance, like he deeply cares about doing his best. Fans appreciate and notice that.

But chanting is also used to put an opponent in its place. And although I would say the chanting at the Emirates is typically 80% for our team and 20% against the other team, when Arsenal plays Tottenham that balance is substantially changed. Probably 50% of the chants were for Arsenal and 50% were against Tottenham. And let’s face it, don’t we all get more creative when our brains are doing the devil’s work? Some of the anti-Tottenham songs were as choice as could be. And largely unknown by me. It’s not yet in my DNA the way it is for my fellow supporters. I am just a new visitor to the history of this great rivalry.

We were close again to the Tottenham supporters and the job of an Arsenal fan close to the enemy is to make sure they are drowned out. It was a tough challenge. Although Tottenham was abject, they still managed to score first and that really energized their fans and demoralized ours. But even when we could not muster a real song to drown them out, we perfected our booing to cover them up as best as we could.

But Arsenal came good, scoring 2 goals. One from a corner and by Gabriel (although they later gave it as an own goal against a Tottenham player) and a bit later by a shot taken at distance by Leo Trossard. He had kind of a terrible match but he took a shot and the keeper did not stop it.

Then Arsenal managed to keep Tottenham at bay until the full 90 minutes + 5 added were up. I was a wreck for the last 30 minutes along with my compatriots. And so, apparently, was our captain Martin Odegaard, who collapsed on the field when the final whistle blew. So much soccer in so few days. And probably so much relief to ultimately hold on to the win.

And then “North London Forever” once more. Twice as loud as the loudest I’d ever heard it, at the beginning of the match, which was already twice as loud as the loudest I’d ever heard it before Wednesday.

We were happy, relieved, joyful. But we celebrated en masse on our way back to the train with the not-lofty but so familiar call and response:

“What do you think of Tottenham?” (Every Arsenal fan knows the correct answer is “Shit.”)

“What do you think of shit?” (Every Arsenal fan knows the correct answer is “Tottenham.”)

So much optimism, it’s confusing

Amy O2 Comments

We left the hotel, me in my 2019 Arsenal jersey and my husband in an Arsenal jacket. The Tube station is more or less under our hotel and we saw one other fan enter the train in his Arsenal shirt, a small boy. We changed trains at Kings Cross St. Pancras to the Piccadilly line and were joined by considerably more Arsenal jerseys, including a lot of the black Away jersey and many of this year’s pink Away jersey. By the time we stopped a few times to pick up more people, the majority of people on the train were Arsenal fans. The train let us out at Arsenal station, only the few neutrals continuing onward on the train. We were playing Fulham, also in London, and there were a few Fulham fans mixed in with our crowd.

In all the time I’ve been coming to matches, I’ve never seen the fans quite so jacked up. They were singing for all they were worth along the Ken Friar bridge and into the stadium. I went to the seats to watch the warmup and my husband went to find a beer.

We were both in our seats at the singing of North London Forever (really called The Angel), the song written by a local musician/fan that commenced being used at the stadium at the end of last season. That was pretty special and I felt the lump in my throat. Once the match started, the stadium was electric.

Normally, I am very tuned into the details of the match but I couldn’t find my focus. There was so much chanting and cheering, none of it very coordinated. A third of the stadium was singing one song, a third singing something else, and a final third singing something else entirely. I started to realize that I had only one purpose—to sing and support my team and will it, with thousands of others, to a win.

It registered with me that we weren’t having our best match. Odegaard was playing well, but things were a bit sloppy from everyone else. Other than that, there were only five moments that stood out in my mind.

  1. Jesus getting drawn in on some Fulham bad behavior and getting a yellow card before the end of the first half. Great animosity toward the referee. Seeing the guy in front of us in a wheelchair doing the international hand sign of—let’s call it—self love, and hearing the toddler next to us pipe up in his tiny voice, while holding his stuffed bear—“you DON’T know WHAT you’re doing! You DON’T know WHAT you’re doing!”
  2. Mitrovic getting behind the last two Arsenal defenders where they had no chance of catching up to get the ball. One of them was going to have to bring him down, risking a red card and maybe a penalty if it didn’t happen soon enough. And neither of them did. Instead, Mitrovic swung his mighty leg back to take a mighty shot that would produce a mighty goal….and then fell down as if God herself had laid a banana peel in his path.
  3. Our Gabriel having the ball at his feet a moment too long and Mitrovic picking his pocket. God, fresh out of banana peels, shrugging while he scored a big goal. The Fulham fans going berserk with joy. And we Arsenal fans doubling down on singing and cheering to get through this moment. 0-1.
  4. Odegaard scoring a deflected shot to bring the score to 1-1. I never took my eyes off the match, but where the ball came from, I have no memory.
  5. Willing the last goal from a corner kick near the end of the 90 minutes, from the foot of Gabriel. It wasn’t pretty but it was in the net. Waiting interminably for a ruling on a possible handball. Then celebrating like mad, as you do when you looked to be losing or tying, and ended up winning.

We hung around after the final whistle soaking up the joy, then walked back over to Arsenal station. The entire train was filled with Arsenal jerseys and fans, until stop by stop, the proportion of fans to regular people changed completely. Finally, my husband and I were the only fans left in the train car.